Unexpected
by Dogtooth3030
Summary: When Tony is captured by a man named Afzal, it's for something as cliche as taking over the world. But things take an unexpected turn and the whole human race becomes at risk when an old(ish) enemy returns looking for revenge. And he brought his master along with him this time. Rated for language and some graphic scenes. Please read and review! Non-OC now - pure canon characters!
1. Chapter 1

It _stunk_.

Like crap. Actually, much, much worse than crap. More like himself after locking himself up to work on a project in his lab. For all his genius, it was too much for Tony Stark to take the time to install a bathroom and shower in his lab.

His thoughts stilled. His lab. That was the last place he remembered he was. In his lab working on a device that would help harness the Earth's magnetic fields when . . . when . . . he frowned. Crap. He couldn't remember what happened after.

The more his brain was waking up, the more it hurt. Tony made a move to grasp it in his hands – only to find that they were tethered behind his back. As soon as his fogged mind (whoever kidnapped him must have drugged him or something) registered that he was tied up, it went into overload. He started thrashing in his bindings, not actually thinking, just acting on a thought – memory – that was running through his mind: Afghanistan, in that cave with Yensin, hooked up to that car battery. Thankfully, this time, he could feel the steady warm heat that the arc reactor flowed into his blood stream, warming up his body, even if it was only a degree or two.

Ever since his encounter with the Ten Rings, being captured was something of a major fear for him. He hated anything to do with it: being tied up, caves, missing his arc reactor, shouting in foreign languages, and water. Especially water. It was something that made him wake up in the middle of the night, screaming from a nightmare and drenched in his own sweat. Being soaked to the bone really didn't help when the nightmares are about water. It always takes JARVIS a few doses of tranquilizer to calm him down enough so that his heart didn't go into cardiac arrest.

But here, where he was, was no nightmare. It was absolutely, terrifyingly real. The more he struggled, the more his body hurt. And the more his body hurt the deeper into panic he unwillingly dove into. After what felt like hours but was, in reality, only a few moments, he felt something get shot into his system and his frayed nerves and panicked sense of self seemed to be reduced drastically. Tony stilled and sat on the hard wooden chair he was bound to with his head hung low to his chest. Someone grabbed his hair and yanked his head up, but he still couldn't see anything due to the bright light shining in his eyes.

"Good, you're awake. I was hoping my men didn't do any permanent damage to that priceless mind of yours, Mister Stark." The hand released him roughly the man behind him stepped away, although the light remained.

Tony groaned, shaking his head slowly so he didn't jostle his brain too much. The light became too much for him and he screwed his eyes shut, welcoming the comfort of darkness that soothed his headache somewhat. He heard the man speak again but it was in a different language, one that he didn't recognize. Tony slowed his breathing down and tried to focus on his surroundings as much as he could with senses other than his eyes, ignoring the unknown words that filled the air and made him shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the temperature.

It was freezing, so cold he'd probably be able to see his breath if he could open his eyes without sharp stabs of pain shooting through his skull. His shirt was missing and his sweatpants were ragged and ripped up, obviously from mistreatment. His shoes and socks were also missing, leaving his feet to freeze against the ice-cold concrete. Already, he could feel the tips of his extremities going slightly numb with the temperature. If something wasn't done, he was worried he'd lose his fingers.

Other than that awful stink, he could tell nothing else about the room and the red against his eyelids told him that it wouldn't be fun to open his eyes now. So he evaluated himself for injuries. A splitting headache, possibly a sprained ankle, bruises everywhere, and a few loose teeth were the extent of the damage that he could tell. With his captors still not talking to him, he struggled to remember what happened before he was kidnapped.

It wasn't very pleasant, that much he remembered, but it might let him know where his Avenger teammates were. He thought hard to remember and, bit by bit, it slowly started to come back and as it did, the more Tony had to fight to control himself.

***~* Flashback *~***

"Screwdriver."

He only twisted it a few times before he tossed it aside and held out his hand again. "Blowtorch."

Dummy, being the dysfunctional robot it was, handed him a wrench instead. Tony, too focused on his work, didn't realize that he held the wrong tool in his hand until he was holding it above the twisted piece of metal that he needed to shape into a cone. With an annoyed grunt, he threw the wrench somewhere on his workshop and left to go find the blowtorch himself. When he couldn't find it, after searching for almost three minutes, he turned around with an angry huff.

Only to see that Dummy was holding the blowtorch in its robotic appendage. It beeped and whirled happily, pleased that it was able to help its master for once.

Tony muttered something unintelligible – something about, ". . . donating you to a university for the students to dismantle you and put you back together again." – when Steve's voice sounded over the intercom. The pitch and tone was the same, but something about it still didn't sound right to Tony. It was colder, harder, sharper than he had ever heard him speak before to a teammate.

"Stark, get to the living room right now. I need to talk to you."

Tony glared at nothing. He was working on something extremely important and had no time for a chit-chat with one of his least favorite teammates. Clint, out of sheer annoying-ness, was a close second to Steve Rogers, the epitome of goodness. Tony was completely prepared to ignore the Captain and had sat down at his desk to continue working when all of his systems shut down. JARVIS's voice sounded out in the now very quiet room.

"Sir, I would listen to what the Captain has to say. It shouldn't take long."

Now the man was suspicious. The AI hadn't done that before, certainly hadn't tried to separate him from his work unless it was for his or someone else's health and safety. He was sure it wasn't either of those. He had just started a few days ago, but was interacting with people, eating, sleeping – nothing that would cause anyone any alarm. And it knows that he dislikes Steve, not hate, but he wouldn't take time out of his work just to talk to him.

"JARVIS, is there something you're not telling me?" Tony questioned, staring intently at his half-finished device, waiting for the AI to answer.

There was a long pause, so long that Tony wasn't sure the AI registered what he said. "The Captain is waiting, sir."

He sighed through his nose. It wasn't like JARVIS to skim around a question like that, at least not to him, so his only assumption was that one of his teammates or SHIELD had ordered JARVIS to send him up but not tell him what it was about, so it must be importiant. With a quiet grumble, he got up and, leaving everything where it was on his desk, left to see what Captain America wanted to talk to him about.\

When he entered his living room, he was surprised to see the lights dimmed and one man, Steve, standing in the middle of the room with his hands behind his back, glaring at him. Tony gave him a sour look, "What? Unless you didn't notice, I'm very busy at the moment."

It surprised him that Steve didn't take the bait, only continued to glare at him in a way that he didn't know the Cap could glare. "Mister Stark," he began coldly, "it has come to SHIELD's attention that you have become incompetent and we are asking you to leave the Avengers."

Tony held up a finger in the universal 'hang on a minute' sign, before taking his other pinkie and sticking it in his ear, cleaning it out before leaning towards Steve a bit, "I'm sorry, what? I don't think I heard you right. Are you _firing_ me?"

Steve's expression didn't change, annoying and concerning Tony. He wouldn't ever let anyone know, but he was worried that he had something wrong to cause such a reaction in the normally relaxed man, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of anything.

"Look, if this is revenge for showing you that video on YouTube, I'm sorry, okay? Just lighten up, man. Geez." He made a move to pat Steve on the shoulder, but in a quick flurry of movements that he couldn't even see – see didn't know how Cap could move that fast – his hand and forearm was grabbed and held in a vice-like grip, painful.

Startled, Tony jerked his head up to see the Captain glaring at him with venom in his dark eyes, "Don't _ever_ touch me, you vile piece of scum," he snarled, "or, so help me God, I'll rip your arm from your shoulder." With a cold shiver of dread, he realized with the grip Steve had him in, it would take nothing more than a quick jerk and his arm would snap easily.

"Now go get your important stuff and get lost, Stark," Steve spat before shoving him back. Tony stumbled before gaining back his balance, looking up to see that Steve was already gone. Tony had no idea what happened. Fired? Was that even possible for an Avenger? Didn't they realize how stupid a decision that was? They needed him, SHIELD needed his funding, the Avengers needed his expertise in science and mechanics, the world needed Iron Man. And what had he done wrong? Besides pull a few pranks on his fellow teammates and a couple agents, nothing major came to mind. It made no sense.

He made a mental note to call his friend, Bruce Banner, and ask him about it later. He would tell him for sure. Tony was entering the security code into his door to enter his lab when something hard and heavy hit the back of his head. He fell to the ground, stars bursting within his line of vision. His dizziness hindered his vision, but he thought he saw a man standing over him before something his his head again and he passed out.

***~* END Flashback*~***

Tony felt like the breath had been forced from his lungs. Now he remembered what happened, but he still didn't believe it. Would they really do something like that, his teammates?

Ex-teammates, he corrected himself bitterly, his heart closing itself off again from such pleasures as friendship and trust. He should have known that this would happen. It was only a matter of time before life decided to be a bitch and take away some of the best things that had happened to him in years. It took everything in him not to yell in fury.

But there was no time for that now, because that man, the one who had grabbed his hair, was turning to him, talking to him with a wicked scowl on his Arabic-looking face. Tony's heart sped up in instinct fear at the sight of a face that could belong to the same ones from Afghanistan.

"It seems that we've run into a little problem," the man began, having a thick Arabic accent. "When we left your tower with you, my men were breaking into your lab to . . . borrow a little device that you're working on. I believe it's original purpose was to help amplify the Earth's electromagnetic field, perhaps to be used as a 'wireless' charging method, right? Unfortunately, the men there are idiots and basically, are locked outside your lab. Your AI system has locked them out. Now," he leaned forward, placing his hands on the arms of the chair, fact-to-face with Tony, "unless you give us that code to unlock the door and let them out with the device, I can assure you that it will not be pleasant for you. Comply; tell me the security code."

Tony scowled right back in his face. That electromagnetism device was going to change the world, something that would revolutionize the field of . . . well, everything. If he could harness the power of the electromagnetic field around the Earth, then there would be no need for batteries or charging. People could simply tune into the Earth to power their devices.

And he'd never have to worry about his Iron Man suit being depleted. If his arc reactor was running low, then he could switch to power from the electromagnetic field and he'd be able to run the suit forever. It was _life-changing_.

And there was no way in hell he'd let a man like that anywhere near that technology. Who knows what he would do with it. How had he even known about it? He kept all of his important projects hidden on his personal server. No one except him had access to it.

Tony gave him a mocking look and raised an eyebrow that conveyed without words 'what-are-you-stupid-or-something-go-to-hell'. The man, understanding his look, narrowed his eyes and snapped at someone behind him in a different language, which Tony now guessed was a dialect from somewhere in the Middle East. But he didn't have any time to think about it because there was a shadow from behind dwarfing him and a wire wrapping around his throat tightly, cutting off his airway.

The pressure was immense, it felt as if the man tightened the wire even a fraction of a pound, it would slice clean through his neck like a well-cooked steak. He tried to keep calm – he really did – but within a few moments of trying to tough it out he began to struggle. Lack of air was starting to color the edges of his vision, creeping up closer and darkening more and more. Now he really started to panic, opening his mouth to try to get at least some air into his lungs. Just when he thought he was about to pass out, the man released the wire from his neck and he could breathe again, sucking in huge gulps of air.

The man smirked slightly, "Just give us the codes, Stark."

Not having the air to answer, Tony shook his head. The man clicked his tongue and made a motion. Before he even knew what was happening, three large, massively buff men appeared and gave him the beating of his life. The punched him as hard as they could – their rings hurt like a motherfucker – and then threw him, chair and all, onto the floor and began kicking him with their heavy, steel-toed boots. It probably only lasted a few minutes, but to the billionaire, it was forever and a half before they stopped and righted him back up in his chair.

The list of injuries that he had composed earlier had nearly tripled in size, if he had to guess. Several broken ribs, broken arm and leg bones, harsh bruises, bloody gashes covering his body, and simply his entire body being one big pain. There wasn't something that didn't hurt.

"Smile for the camera." Tony glanced up deliriously when he saw the bright flash of a photo being taken and the man – the leader, most likely – leaving the room with a smirk on his face. Tony passed out before the door had slammed shut.

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Clint hadn't been living in the Stark Tower for very long, but he already knew where everything was. It was one of the perks of being trained to be a spy/assassin. Currently, he was searching for Tony. The computer he had been using suddenly crashed and while it would be easy to simply go to another computer, he knew Stark didn't like anything not working and wanted him to fix it as soon as possible. He was about to head down to his lab when Natasha, seemingly on her way to the conference room, paused to glance at him curiously.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Trying to find Stark so he can fix this stupid piece of junk," he shook the laptop for emphasis.

Natasha gave him an odd look, "Didn't you hear Fury? About five minutes ago?" When he shook his head, she took the liberty to explain, "He's called all of us to a meeting, so you'll see Stark there. But Fury sounded pissed – beyond pissed, actually, so I don't really want to keep him waiting."

"Any idea why he's so mad?" The archer asked, falling in step to his long-time partner as they walked down the long hallway.

"Not a clue. Everything's been so quiet recently. It's actually been worrying me, the calmness. It's like the calm before the storm, you know?"

"Yeah, I've been feeling it, too. Hopefully, we'll have a mission now." The assassins walked into what was probably the most tension filled room they had been in. Fury was standing at the head of the table, living up to his name with a vengeance. Steve, Thor, and Bruce were there, too, looking worried and expectant at the same time. They didn't know what was going on either. But there was one person missing: Tony.

Surprisingly, the Director didn't wait for Tony. But after his first sentence, it was made clear, "Tony's been kidnapped and we don't know where he is."

Everyone responded differently to the news. Natasha gasped and stood completely still with eyes widening slightly. Bruce instantly tensed and it was obvious that the 'Other Guy' didn't take well to that. Steve looked shocked and outraged at the same time and Clint was just pissed off. Thor's normally friendly face turned dark in fury and faint crack of thunder from outside was heard. Steve was the first to recover his voice, "What happened?"

Fury explained, "We aren't sure how he was kidnapped, but it has something to do with the device he was building. It somehow utilized the Earth's electromagnetic field, like a mobile charging station. This could revolutionize the world and I'm guessing that the people who took Tony also know this. They're probably trying to get information out of him."

He was about to say more when a terrified looking agent walked in, "S-Sir, this was just sent to us by an untraceable source." He laid the picture on the table and got out of there as quickly as he could.

It was a picture of Tony, sitting bound in a chair. His hair was matted and dark with blood and it was almost everywhere on him. Numerous small cuts were seen all over his body, but the dark bruises already forming were visible. A thin red line across his throat was proof of the wire that had choked him earlier. His expression would look livelier on a dead man, but they all noticed and were grateful for the fact that the arc reactor was still glowing brightly and in his chest where it should be.

Bruce lunged out of his chair and began pacing, eyes a vivid green as his hands fisted tightly. Natasha and Clint both school their expressions until there was none showing on either of their faces, but both of them were feeling the anger deep in their hearts. Thor took Mjolnir and crushed the chair next to him to nothing but a pile of trash. Steve, being one of the more emotional Avengers, took it the hardest. He felt fury build within him, but also disappointment with himself for not seeing something earlier and maybe preventing this from happening. Not knowing it, but that same thought was running through everyone's minds.

Fury glared at the picture. It was embarrassing, that he couldn't keep track of his most valuable agents and his main team. Now one of them was injured and hidden away somewhere – God knows where – and there wasn't even a demand for money or something from his kidnappers. Just a note and a frantic JARVIS telling him that a group of men had – somehow – overridden the AI and implanted a fake one for a total of one minute. Then the real JARVIS virtually ripped the fake system to shreds. There wasn't even a byte left of the imposter.

Just when Fury had nothing more to say to the remaining Avengers, another agent came in and whispered something in his ear. The others all quieted down to listen to what they were saying to each other but the agent left quickly, leaving the Director standing there with fresh anger on his face.

When he didn't say anything, Clint prodded, "Hey, what was that? Does it have to do with Tony?"

Fury looked up at all of them, "Come on, all of you. The man who kidnapped Stark is on video-conference now and wants to strike a deal with us for Stark's life."

Within seconds, the room was completely empty.

* * *

**Well, what do you think? I plan on making this a long-ish term story, with a definite plot that will become more defined along the way. But the only way for me to keep writing and updating is for reviews. So if I get no feedback, then I don't post anything. Sound fair?**

**How about a goal of 5 reviews, huh? I like that goal (feel free to go over that goal).**

**Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm so sorry this took so long to come out, but I had to make a decision about whether or not to go OC (I went non-OC). Thnx for hanging tough, my lovely readers!**

* * *

Afzal was a man who believed himself to be equals with God. He looked at the state of the world and believed that he could create global peace through complete domination and submission. All who listened to him and his ideas scoffed and called him crazy.

'_Are my ideas so crazy now,'_ Afzal challenged in his mind, _'that I have the great Tony Stark in my possession?'_ He stared through the one-way window, watching the unconscious billionaire, before glancing at the clock. Feeling that enough time had passed, he ordered two of his men to set up a live video feed with SHIELD and another two to move Stark into the same room. After a moment's hesitation, he also ordered a basin of ice cold water be brought in with an evil smirk on his rugged face. He would get what he needed from SHIELD easily, once their lapdogs saw what he would do to their teammate. In his opinion, the once great Avengers had become compromised as soon as they had decided to become friends with each other.

Afzal strode into the room with the video camera, still waiting for the Avengers to respond. While he waited, he stared at Stark.

That man was a living legend, history in the making. He'd already out-performed Afzal's idol, Howard Stark, by revolutionizing weapons and clean energy. When he had heard of Stark's decision to never produce any more weapons, he wasn't too concerned. The Arabian already had enough of Stark Industries' weapons to take over a small country, if he wished to. But the man was patient and waited to see what Stark's next move would be. Clean energy was, in Afzal's opinion, his last major play. When Tony cured his palladium poisoning and, somehow, made the arc reactor even more impressive, Afzal knew that it was time to make his move.

One of his men nodded to him, signaling that the Avengers were connected and waiting for them to start the live feed. He grinned out of satisfaction when the little red light lit up and the snow on the screen flickered to show the Avengers with Nick Fury, angrily protesting his treatment of their friend. And they hadn't even seen the torture yet.

At the moment, he was standing in the shadows, unseen by anyone yet. They were yelling through the television screen at Stark, trying to wake him maybe, but he was still unconscious from his previous treatment. About to step into their line of sight, he hesitated. Afzal was as cautious was he was crazy, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to reveal himself just yet.

Instead, he spoke from the shadows, keeping his features from view, "Greetings, heroes."

He didn't get any farther because one of the Avengers, the huge god of thunder, slammed his hammer down so hard it made a dent in the stainless steel table and he boomed in a mighty voice, "Show yourself, coward! What have you done to friend Stark?!"

Afzal ignored his first statement, "_I_ haven't done anything to 'friend Stark', although it is a different story for my acquaintances."

"What do you want with him?" Dr. Bruce Banner asked, tinged a faint green.

He shrugged even though they couldn't see him, "At the moment, nothing but leverage. Later on, he'll be very useful." He motioned to some of his men and they emerged from the shadows. One of them tugged along the basin of water. "However, I need something from you. More specifically, Stark's lab. I know SHIELD won't do anything, but maybe with a little incentive . . ." Afzal let his sentence die out, watching the Avengers glare at them furiously, helpless to do anything other than watch. The two men filled a bucket with the water and dumped it on Stark's head to wake him up.

Afzal was pleased to find that Stark seemed to still hold a strong case of hydrophobia. He jerked awake violently with a wordless shout of fear, eyes dilated and his heavy breathing echoing loudly. His friends cried out to him, but he either didn't hear them or ignored them. Stark had completely stilled when he saw the ice cold water mere inches from his feet. When he shrunk back from it, Afzal felt pride swell in his chest. _He_ was the one who was able to make the powerful Iron Man cower in fear. _He_ was the one who had SHIELD at their knees – if not now, then soon. _He_ was the one who had the powerful Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes, gripped by the throat. The feeling of empowerment was nearly overwhelming.

Afzal hissed without hesitation, "Dunk him."

Two of his men immediately grabbed Stark, who started thrashing wildly, panicked. The two men strained to hold him, but slowly they were lowering him closer and closer to the water. Afzal liked it better when Stark struggled. It showed the genius that no matter how hard he tried, Afzal would win. Finally, Stark's head went under and a torrent of bubbles arose, his struggles getting more violent. But now the two men could use gravity to keep him down.

Afzal shouted over the thrashing and splashing, "Do as we say and Stark will not be harmed!"

Just as he suspected, it didn't take long for the Avengers to cave in. "Alright," Captain America shouted, "alright! Just stop it!"

Afzal ordered his men to stand down in Arabic and they released Tony, whose chair rocked back on four legs. Stark sat there, gasping harshly, dripping wet and shivering, either from the cold or fear, Afzal wasn't sure and didn't really care. He smiled from the shadows. "Good. It's nice to see that at least one of you has some good sense. Go to Stark's lab and you will find three of my men there, locked out by that damn AI. At least leave one alive and able to function normally, and then give him Stark's electromagnetic device. Do not purse him when you let him go, or Stark gets this a thousand times over." With a quick motion, one of his men cut the feed, plunging the TV into snow.

* * *

The Avengers didn't waste a second after the live feed cut off. As they all rushed out the door, Fury hung back and radioed Agent Hill, "Hill, did you track that signal?"

Her voice called back, disappointed, "Negative, sir. They bounced the signal around all over the place and before we could even get a lock on it, they shut it down."

Fury snarled under his breath. Damn Arabians.

The Avengers were nearly running down the halls, trying to get to the basement as quick as possible. Bruce called out, "JARVIS, where are the intruders?"

The AI answered, "Sir, they are at the door to the lab. They are surrounded." Bruce wasn't sure if he heard right, but it sounded like the AI was smug about something.

"Surrounded?" Natasha questioned, "By what?" She rounded the corner and down the last flight of steps, before halting in her tracks. "Oh. By them."

"Who, by who?" Clint yelled after her. Then he saw them too, "Oh."

Soon, the rest of the Avengers could see what they were gawking at. Dummy and Butterfingers, two of Tony's robots, had armed themselves with an assortment of hardware and building accoutrements: blowtorches, wrenches, drills, hammers, etcetera. JARVIS had commandeered an Iron Man suit and was pointing it's blasters at the two men. It looked like the beginning of a horror movie. The two men were cowering in a corner, pleading pitifully in different language. None of them had realized that Tony's robots would actually react and turn violent.

Bruce, who was more used to them than any of the other Avengers, called out, "Hey, you two!" They both whipped around to face him, still brandishing their 'weapons'. "Back off! They're going to help us find Tony." They were surprised to see how quickly Dummy and Butterfingers reacted, rolling themselves back and lowering their arms, but JARVIS was different. He ignored them and kept the Iron Man blaster pointed at the intruders. "JARVIS?"

The AI responded through the suit, "Sir, I do not believe that they will keep their word and return Mister Stark back in one piece. I let him down by allowing that imposter," it almost spat the word out, "to override my systems, if only for a minute. The least I can do for him is to destroy the ones who took him away."

The blaster powered up, but Thor, not quite understanding what was going on but knowing that killing one of the men was bad, jumped in front and quickly deflected the shot with Mjolnir. He boomed loudly, "JARVIS, I understand not what is happening, but I do know that destroying these men will result in no good. They are still useful to us, in their knowledge if nothing else." The Arabic men both nodded their heads violently, jabbering nervously in Urdu.

That was when Steve noticed something wrong.

"Weren't there three men?"

Before the Avengers could mount a full scale search, JARVIS spoke up from the Iron Man suit, "He was the first to go, sirs, ma'am. My apologies."

Everyone was silent, the remaining two men eyeing the AI controlled suit with fear and apprehension in their gaze.

"So," Clint began, "where's the body?"

"Taken care of, sir." If anything, its refined British accent made it even more unsettling. The AI's loyalty to its creator was astounding and, coupled with its control over nearly the entire house was unnerving. Natasha was the first to get back to business.

She stepped forward, grabbed one of the men by his collar, and began interrogating him in Urdu, speaking harshly. Leaving her to what she was best at, the rest all filed into Stark's lab. Nothing was said, as there was nothing to say. They were trapped with no way to rescue Tony because they didn't know where he was. Hopefully, whatever Natasha was asking them would help in some way.

Bruce stepped up to Stark's desk, fingering the device. With its simplistic look and muted back color, it didn't look like a world-changing contraption. Steve regarded it over the other man's shoulder, gazing at it curiously yet warily. "How does it work, Doctor?"

Banner raised it up, inspecting it from all angles, "I helped Tony create the basic mechanics of it, but then it got too complex for me to understand the technology behind it. The science, however, was what I helped in developing with him. Basically, the Earth generates an electromagnetic field from the charged particles in its core. That field is everywhere, all the time. This device picks up on it and translates the electromagnetic energy into power, which the device funnels into whatever it's hooked up to. I believe Tony was planning on connecting it to his Iron Man suit before he ran into a little snag."

Natasha, trotting into the room quickly, interrupted him, "Got it. Stark's in Arizona, in an old World War II bunker these men use as a base of operations." Any interest in what Tony's snag had been was lost as the team each began building plans in their own minds. The clacking of boots on floor interrupted their trains of thought and they turned to look at Nick Fury, who was standing in the doorway.

"It's not as simple as you think. We can't just go barging in and rescuing Stark. This man has set some precautions in place. In case you haven't noticed, these men have microphones on them, live. Now that he knows we know where he is, he's going to change bases, possibly destroying the previous one. This time, we won't have any clue to lead us to this one. If we try to mount an attack on this base, he will harm Stark more than he already has. Coupled with his past experiences, we're not sure Stark would be able to handle that. So, for now, we are going to listen to what this man says. It's the best way." With that, Fury stared at them for a long moment, before turning and walking away, back upstairs.

Stunned at their lack of observation, both Clint and Natasha gave each other alarmed looks and made their way quickly over to the two men, angry and embarrassed. It was Fury's way of punishing them, be pointing out their mistake in front of the team.

Never good at holding in his anger, Thor demolished a desk with Mjolnir easily. Then he turned and glared at his teammates. He had known that humans could be cruel, but this was too much to bear. Was SHIELD really willing to go along with the madman, all because they were afraid to take a risk? And his teammates – his friends – were really going to go along with it?

Bruce took a deep breath in, held it for five seconds, and slowly blew it out, but it only barely lessened the rage the Other Guy caused. As angry as he was, the doctor could see the reason behind it. Due to Tony's physical and apparent mental state, if something more happened to him, he might not be able to take it. No matter what happened, SHIELD couldn't afford to lose him – he was too many of their resources.

Steve scrutinized the device, not sure what to make of it. "Bruce," he called out, still staring at it, "what was the snag you mentioned?"

"There wasn't enough power to run the Iron Man suit. He tinkered with it a while, but in the end, there just wasn't enough electromagnetism in the air," the doctor enlightened, but the strain was obvious in his voice. The Other Guy wasn't making this easy for him.

"So, this only works for small things?" Natasha asked this time, joining in their conversation. Nodding in confirmation, Bruce sat down heavily in a nearby chair.

Frowning, Steve closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, "This man makes no sense. Why take something that doesn't have a high energy output? Why not make Tony build some arc reactors? It'd be easier than going through all this hassle here."

"Then it's probably for show, to prove to Stark that he isn't safe anywhere, not even in his own lab," quietly muttering, Natasha stared at nothing, thinking deeply. "I've got some profiling skills and I think this man is more interested in our attention than taking over the Middle East or something like that. The notice he's getting, not just from us but from SHIELD, is like the beginning of some type of game for him. It's us that have to do anything to avoid playing his game."

"But if we don't go along, then he'll harm Stark more than he has already," Clint countered.

"Which is a lot," every head in the room turned to see Fury back in the lab, looking graver than before. Slapping a picture on the table, he stepped back and ordered, "The jet's already being prepped for your departure. Get going and bring him back. Alive."

On the picture showed Tony with a gaping black hole in his chest. The reactor was nowhere in sight.

* * *

'_This place must have terrible insulation,'_ Tony mused to himself, more to keep his mind off of the fact that he had been water boarded _again_ by noticing that while it was freezing a few hours ago, now it was starting to get a lot warmer and it soon become very hot.

But again he couldn't help but think, remember the water surrounding him, with its crushing, suffocating presence. The more he thought about it, the less he was able to distinguish between the torture a few hours ago and the torture a few years ago.

Opening with a chilling shriek, the door slammed shut when Afzal entered, smirk on his face, "Congratulations, Mister Stark. Our little show has persuaded your friends to hand over your device."

"Good, now why don't you let me take it back home with me?" He growled, glaring at the man. While he could easily build another one at his lab, he didn't want to leave it with Afzal, even if it couldn't power large machines.

His gaze turned sharp and cruel, almost psychotic. "You know," he began softly, staring at the arc reactor, "that's a remarkable little battery right there. I wonder, what would happen if it were gone?"

Tony's entire body froze with dread.

"Would your death be quick? Only a few minutes? Or would it be long, drawn out, and excruciating? Would you be able to feel every millimeter of shrapnel as it dug its way into your heart with every beat? Could you feel it piercing your heart and destroying your arteries? Or would it be a sort of numbness and you would pass out before you could die?" His face showed no hint of cruelty or malevolence, which made it even more disturbing, and his voice was quiet.

Tony hissed at him to cover up the tremble in his voice, "You're a monster! What the hell is wrong with you – are you mental?"

Tony's yelling seemed to snap the leader out of his daze. He glared at the billionaire darkly before smiling suddenly, "You know what? I'm going to do this just for the hell of it."

He stepped forward and thrust his hand out, grabbing the arc reactor and twisting violently, slowly ripping it out of Tony's chest. He eagerly watched his face, looking almost delighted when signs of pain showed and he fisted his hands and bit his cheek to prevent himself from screaming, either from pain or shock, he wasn't sure. Afzal looked back at the reactor in his hands, glowing so bright it hurt his eyes. He glanced back up at Stark, who was breathing erratically with sweat beading on his pale skin, "Thank you for your cooperation."

As he stalked out of the room Tony almost began to panic. The man was right – he could _feel_ the shrapnel imbedding itself deeper into his chest, wiggling its way closer to his heart. And he was right about it being excruciating, white hot flashes of agony pulsated from his chest with every heartbeat. It was getting colder and colder and the edges of his vision were turning dark.

He was just about to pass out when the men returned with a car battery.

* * *

**Please don't get mad at me for taking so long to update it. Things have been absolutely hectic here and I've been doing bits and pieces, but I finally made some time to get this sh*t done and get this chapter over with. Thank you all who reviewed and helped me with this suggestion. ^^ I luv you all!**

**~Dogtooth**


	3. Chapter 3

His eyelids were heavy and his entire body felt like it had just gotten the worst beating ever. Not even bothering to open his eyes, all Tony wanted was just to pass out again and die. It was going to happen soon anyways, Afzal took away his arc reactor, the only thing keeping him alive. When his mind cleared up a bit, he noticed a faint humming coming from the ground near his feet. Curious, he managed to open his eyelids and stared blankly at the car battery buzzing on the ground, connected via jumper cables to his chest. It was hooked together crudely, as if the person didn't really care. He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, ignoring the pain in his chest from the movement and focused on ignoring the sudden onslaught of memories from Afghanistan that flooded over his senses.

Over the next hour, Tony's mind flickered between two different places: the cave in Afghanistan with Yensin, and the cold, grey room with no one. He tried to get over it, but the more he fought, the more it hurt – just like the torture at Afghanistan. The more he had fought them, the more they had hurt him. He attempted to swallow. No, don't think about it. Think of something else.

Pepper. His team. JARVIS. Fighting monsters and aliens. Almost getting into a fist fight with a super soldier. Movie nights with the team on Pepper's insistence for 'team bonding'. Working with Bruce in the lab. All those good memories helped him get over his anxiety attack.

When the panic died down a little bit due to some deep breathing exercises he had learned after Afghanistan, his mind wandered to other subjects. His deep brown eyes narrowed. The more he thought about it (they hadn't had any need to dope him up, so he had plenty of time for thinking), the less sense it made. Afzal didn't strike him as the kind of man who would take over the world. More like the kind that would do anything he wanted, no matter the consequences. All Tony needed to know was what he wanted.

His device, which was the only reason he was kidnapped in the first place, was like a mobile charging station, using the Earth's natural electromagnetic field as the power source. He could understand Afzal wanting that, but why kidnap him? Why not just take the device? Tony struggled to think of something, but he was getting so tired. It couldn't hurt to go to sleep for a few minutes, right? Isn't sleep good for the human body?

Tony blinked rapidly for a moment. He jarred himself awake again by shifting, accepting the pain that shot through his system, knowing that passing out wouldn't accomplish anything. He needed to think, needed to escape. He had done it once before in a desert wearing something akin to a microwave. He could do it now while tied to a chair, a car battery keeping him alive.

His eyes flicked up to the door as it opened, Afzal striding in with a curious look on his face. "You're not going to take away my battery now, are you? Just for the hell of it?" Tony asked, eyeing the man warily.

The Arabic man laughed, "Good one, Stark! No, I am not. I just came here for a little chat."

"When do I leave?" Tony demanded, keeping his face emotionless.

Afzal flared his nostrils, the jolly expression no longer on his face. "You do not get to leave, Mister Stark. There's been a change in plans. You will stay and you will not cause any trouble or I will take that," he jabbed his finger toward his car battery, "and stick it in a bucket of water. I wonder how much it would hurt – your heart, what's left of it, anyways, to be slowly shocked to death?" He hissed malevolently in Tony's face.

Tony's eyes widened, "W-We had a deal! I get to go!" His words were cut off as Afzal smacked his face, grabbing his hair and holding his head up.

"I am in charge here, Mister Stark," the man growled. "I make the rules, deals, and decisions here, not you," he gave his head a rough shake to emphasize the last word. "While you would be useful alive, it will not be terribly hard to continue if you die. Don't test my patience." He released him and stood straight again. "Now, I came in here to offer a deal to you."

"Not interested," Tony cut him off. "No fucking way."

"But you don't even know the deal yet, Stark," the man pointed out stiffly. "I will give you all the materials you need to build your arc reactor, so you can forgo this," he kicked the car battery, "but, in exchange, you will teach me how to build one." While Tony's blood ran cold, he smiled, "I'm also going to inform you that you don't have any choice in the matter. I look forward to doing business with you."

Just as he was about to leave, Tony stopped him, "What about my arc reactor? Why not just use that?"

Afzal shrugged, "In our attempts to reverse-engineer it, it got damaged and is no longer viable as a reactor. Maybe a Christmas tree light, perhaps." With that, he stood up, straightened his shirt, and left, closing the door with a loud _thud_ that echoed around the room.

As soon as the door closed, Tony scowled darkly. Disasters were limitless with his miniaturized arc reactor in Afzal's hands and if he complied, he would be responsible for not being strong enough to resist. He did it once, he could do it again.

But first, a plan.

His first thought was the most obvious. Trick them like last time. Only he was sure that they had heard of what happened to the Ten Rings and Afzal didn't strike him as the type of man who would repeat any mistakes, let alone someone else's. It would explain why he was tied up this time, whereas he was free to wander around a small section of the cave with Yensin last time. But there were always flaws, always loopholes. He just had to look harder.

Hypothetically, what if he went with what Afzal asked? If he taught that man how to make the arc reactor, then he would have nearly endless power supplies. Especially if he was planning on connecting his electromagnetic device and the arc reactor, like Tony suspected he would. The Arab could use that technology to absolutely control the Middle East and more. The billionaire wasn't quite sure of his intentions, but he knew that nothing good would come from them. And he wouldn't be able to stop him, either; there was no doubt in Tony's mind that as soon as he showed Afzal how to make the arc reactor, he'd kill him instantly.

An idea struck him then. What if he pretended to show him how to make the arc reactor, but changed it slightly, so it wouldn't work? No, the leader would want a demonstration and then he'd be caught. He could still modify it; change it so it would output less power than his original design. But again, he had no idea how far Afzal had gotten on reverse-engineering it, so modify it too much and he'd be as good as dead.

Another idea came. The palladium that powered his previous device, he had specifically needed that palladium because it was the only element that could effectively power the electromagnet and not blow up or something equally tragic. It still didn't work correctly, but there was absolutely no way he was revealing his synthesized Starkanium to them. There was one element that he remembered – lutetium – that would have worked; however, continued use would have resulted in rapid deterioration of the device and while lutetium had a low toxicity, it turned pretty volatile under the conditions replicated in an arc reactor. He smiled slightly.

It was perfect. If Afzal demanded that he use it himself to test it, Tony estimated that he would last about two weeks before he would die. During that time, he could hide the symptoms fairly well and Afzal wouldn't suspect a thing. When he would be forced to make several replicas, all he had to do was wait and even if he died beforehand, all it would take would be time and then the corrupted arc reactors would take care of the men for himself. His simulation also showed that if the lutetium-powered arc reactor was used to power a machine and just a machine, which required a slight change in the format of the reactor, it would explode. Violently.

Tony hardened his resolve. He wasn't going down without a fight, even if that meant killing himself in the process.

* * *

Fury was always a pacer. The constant and consistent movement did good to move his blood around, get some thoughts going, get some ideas working. But now, he was just pacing out of anger and frustration, his heavy boots clanging loudly in the empty room. He had sent everyone else out to give himself some personal alone thought time. He rarely got those nowadays, being the Director of a highly sophisticated division and all. However, he certainly didn't feel like a director now, not after learning that that man, Afzal, had played them like a fiddle. In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have believed him to stay true to his word in the first place. But that was the past and now he had to get back his money source, Tony Stark.

He had already contacted the rest of the Avengers, told them of Afzal's lies and sent them off with coordinates. There wasn't much he could do at Stark Tower, where the Avengers had started living and, consequently, SHIELD had moved in to "keep track of their most excellent agents" as Fury had told Stark sarcastically when the man had demanded what they were doing with giant boxes of paperwork and knickknacks outside of the garage. Since then, out of the ninety-three floors, SHIELD operated on twelve of them.

He sighed through his nose. He opened up a comm link with Agent Hill and snapped, "Get up here! Now!" She answered promptly and was entering the large conference room within minutes.

"What is it, sir?" she questioned. If she had to guess, he wanted an update on one of their missions or something of the sort. He was feeling restless and needed something to do. She had dealt with this side of Fury plenty of times. It was nothing new to her.

"What's the update on our least favorite Asgardian? Has Odin decided a punishment yet?" He growled. The king of Asgard had assured him that once he had found the perfect punishment for his adopted son, he would inform Fury of his decision. That was a little over three months ago.

He wasn't expecting a positive answer, but, surprisingly, Agent Hill nodded, "Yes, sir. He sent a message a few hours ago, informing us that once there was a time you could talk, he needed to enlighten you about some details. I was going to tell you once this kidnapping thing blows over."

There was a slight pause as Fury glared at Agent Hill and she shifted nervously on her feet. He barked, "What are you waiting for? Get that king on the line!"

Hill tried protesting, "Sir, it isn't that simple . . ."

"I know what I asked, Agent," he said sternly, "and I am not taking it back. There's a line that I had Stark," Hill winced slightly when he said his name, but Fury pretended not to notice, "make awhile back, specifically so we could remain in contact with Asgard. I forgot that I didn't tell you."

She frowned slightly, "So, who did you tell, sir?"

Fury glanced at her before turning back to a computer screen, typing up a code on it. It was a long silence until he answered, "Agent Coulson."

Agent Hill didn't dare say anything after that.

Within a few moments, the line was apparently up and running because the screen blinked to life and it showed a room that was nothing like any room on Earth, so she assumed it was King Odin's on Asgard. While they waited for the king to appear, Fury turned and faced Agent Hill, crossing his arms and staring at her with his one good eye. His staring made her uncomfortable and she eventually asked, "What is it, sir?"

He wasted no time in asking, "How well do you know Stark?" Her reaction to his name had aroused his curiosity and Nick Fury was a man who didn't like not knowing things he was curious about.

Maria's eyes widened slightly, "Sir, if you're insinuating something, then I'm going to have to stop you before I become insulted."

Fury snorted, "Even I know better than to imply _that_ about you and Stark, Agent Hill. I'm not stupid." The idea of Stark and Hill doing . . . _that_ sent shivers down his spine and not the good kind.

Hill relaxed slightly, "It's nothing, sir, just that, well," she looked a little uncomfortable, "I know what happened to him in Afghanistan. And, I can't help but wonder if this will screw him up even more. If it does, then he won't be useful to the agency anymore, sir."

The man with the eye patch chuckled, "Agent, Stark has always been different and while he turned his life around after Afghanistan, I doubt anything will truly faze him. Being forced to take responsibility of a huge company and being expected to outshine his father has made him very adaptable. He's very good at letting things just roll off of his back. Besides, when he gets back," Hill didn't miss the way he said 'when' and not 'if', "he'll have Miss Potts and his teammates. He'll be fine."

Before Agent Hill could protest more, the monitor behind them beeped and showed Odin striding into the room. His power was evident even though a computer screen. Fury nodded curtly to him, "King Odin, Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD."

The older man grunted, "Greetings, Midgardian. I am pleased to see you were able to answer my calling so quickly."

"Yeah, well, I got some free time now that Loki's gone. Speaking of which, what was his punishment?"

Something changed in Odin's expression, and while Fury couldn't tell what, he knew it wasn't good. He had to forcibly hold back his groan. Now was not the time for something like this. The king rumbled, "Though various questionings, I have discovered that the place my son hates the most is your planet, Earth. Therefore, I am sending him to Midgard in hopes that if he learns to get over his greatest hate, then he will learn to let go of all the things that make him so bitter. _This_ is what I need to discuss with you."

"Now hold on a minute there." Fury, frankly, didn't give a fuck if this guy was a king or a hobo, but _no one_ ordered him around. "You think you can just—" Agent Hill quickly interrupted him, grabbing his shoulder and clearing her throat, glancing at the screen when he turned his head to glare at her. A quick look at the screen confirmed that Odin was furious and while Fury didn't want to play babysitter to a bratty god of mischief, he didn't want to have the king of another world full of gods hate him. Again, he sighed through his nose. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Fine. We'll watch him until . . ." He let his words hang, waiting for Odin to answer his unspoken question.

Fortunately, Odin looked far less angry than he did before. "Until he learns his lesson and learns to appreciate people even like Midgardians." With that, he hung up the connection.

Fury, feeling annoyance build up within him, turned around to see Agent Hill staring at him. "That went better than what I had pictured in my head."

"Shut up, Maria."

* * *

Steve had his face pressed against the glass, anxiously waiting for their small plane to make it to the place where Tony was being held and, possibly, tortured. When he could see nothing but sand on one side, he would go to the other, and when the result was the same, he'd go to the other side again. He kept doing that same thing until even Clint was feeling dizzy just from watching him.

"Hell, Steve, you keep pacing like that and I'll glue your feet to the ground myself," he growled. Steve wasn't the only one feeling impatient about how long it was taking them to reach the place, even if they were going as fast as they can.

Rogers whirled around, baby blue eyes flashing with anger, "How can you not be worried about Tony, Clint?! He's a member of our team and he's our friend!"

"I never said I wasn't worried about him," Hawkeye snarled, standing up and coming face-to-face with Captain America. "I just control it better than you. Pacing isn't going to do anything. It's only going to annoy the rest of us."

Bruce, seeing conflict beginning to arise, was quick to attempt to keep the cool. The last thing he needed was a fight going on. He was on edge as is, "Hey, hey, guys. Calm down." When both men looked at him, he continued once he was sure he had their attention, "Let's discuss our strategy for when we get there, okay? We'll be doing something that will help Tony."

Steve and Clint glanced at each other, both silently agreeing that it was a good idea, one that they should have thought of earlier. Thor joined them without saying a word and they moved closer to the cockpit, where Natasha was flying the plane so she could input her opinion in as well. All of them were tense and no one wanted to speak first. Natasha sighed inwardly. Did she have to do everything around here?

"First, we'll land a mile away – actually, a mile and a half, just to be safe. We'll then approach on foot and, if Steve knows the place where he's being held, we can infiltrate from a weak point and find Stark and then escape while Thor uses his lightning and hammer to distract them while we get to the plane. Thor can catch up once he's done with them." The god of thunder grunted his approval.

Steve, finally seeing where he could be useful, added his two cents, "If it's the same one I'm remembering, then there's a secret basement with a door that's located about a fourth mile away from the actual building, so we won't be completely in sight. I remember the interior fairly well; let's just hope that nothing got rearranged within the past seventy years."

After that, the rest of the group fell quiet. There wasn't much else for them to discuss. The rest of their plan was simply; get Stark, get out. There wasn't much more to talk about. Fortunately, after nearly half an hour, Natasha chuckled darkly, "Up and at 'em, boys. We'll be able to see it after I fly us over this—" her voice cut off with a gasp of horror, something that even Clint hadn't ever heard from her. When all of them instantly jumped up to see what she saw, their looks varied from fury to anger to horror.

The building was on fire and even before they got close, it collapsed.

* * *

***smirks evilly* I'd say I was sorry, but I'm really not. Have fun with this until I get out the next chapter! It might take a couple days because I just started taking classes to become qualified to become an EMT! Yay!**

**Love you all!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note at the bottom. Please read that (not to mention, this, please), it's short.**

Three days. Three _fucking_ days since it happened. Since his captors had moved places, burning their previous building to the ground. Tony wasn't able to catch much of what was said, but during Afghanistan, he had picked up on a word or two of Arabic. The only words he understood clearly were 'Avengers', 'rescue,' and 'trick'. Tony was never an emotional man, but when he heard that his coworkers (after what they did to him, 'firing' him and all, he couldn't bring himself to call them friends anymore) had nearly saved him, even if they were bastards, he wanted to cry. So fucking close and yet so far away.

Tony knew that wherever he was now, they wouldn't find him. All the twists and turns, switching from foot, to car, to plane, to boat (the worst, in his opinion – too much water around), to plane again, and back to foot. They had taken so many turns that Tony knew that even if he had his blindfold off, he'd be utterly lost. They had to have a map of some sort; otherwise they would have been lost, as well. Judging by how much undergrowth was grabbing onto his legs and seemed to be trying to trip him, it wasn't a path used often. As it was, they eventually slowed from a brisk jog to a walk, allowing Tony time to catch his breath through the cloth gag. Whenever he tripped or slowed down at all, he was hit on the back of the head and shouted at. By now, his head was pulsating along with his heartbeat and the trickle if blood that had made its way down his neck and shoulder blades itched like the devil. However, his hands were tied, so he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"_We're here, sir,"_ one of the men said in Arabic. Tony coughed raggedly into the gag, not bothering to pay attention to their conversation. He was almost sure that the jumper cables that were connected to his chest had never been clean and he had some type of sickness from it. He felt feverish, clammy, dizzy, nauseous, and incredibly tired. The past few days, what with all the running, not to mention some beatings when they got bored, like on the plane, boat, and car, hadn't helped his condition.

They must have said something to him, because he was struck on the back of the head again and someone shouted before hands roughly grabbed his arms and half-dragged, half-carried him forward. He didn't resist, but he didn't have the energy to make his legs move or support his weight. He was using almost all of his remaining strength to clutch his dirty car battery to his chest. More shouts were exchanged and Tony knew they were talking about him because even through the haze of illness, he picked up on his own name several times.

When they crudely injected something into his arm, he let out a strangled yelp through the gag before passing out.

Tony wasn't sure how long it was before he woke up, but he was feeling remarkably better when he did. The room he was in was about the same size as his lab back at his home in Malibu, with a huge arching ceiling and no openings but a heavy, locked steel door. He sat up from his prone position on the cot and immediately fell back, clutching his arm. His bicep throbbed in his ears and for a moment, his vision went dark. Blearily, he remembered that they had shot something into him. Keeping his weight off of his arm, Tony swung his legs over the side of the cot and waited for the lightheadedness to fade.

Once he got his equilibrium back, he glanced around the room he was in. He was alone, but the cameras placed around the area betrayed his lack of privacy. Other than a cot and two tables, it was barren and drab, the air stagnant, humid, and hot. He was still shirtless, but had the shoes that were given to him three days ago.

Soon, three men, including Afzal, entered the room, the leader smiling and the other two looking indifferent. As Tony had learned, Afzal only smiled when he had to talk about something bad for you, good for him.

The Arabian spread his arms wide, "Tony! I'm glad to see you're feeling better! Did you have a nice nap?" The grin on his face held something mocking in the background, making Tony even more wary of the man. When Stark remained silent, Afzal continued, ignoring his discomfort, "Good, because I need you to start working. We will give you everything you need to make the arc reactor."

Tony ground his teeth, but held his tongue. If this man wanted arc reactors, fine. He'll get arc reactors.

"If you want arc reactors, I'll need some equipment and materials."

Afzal interrupted, "We have all the equipment you need. I just need a list of materials."

"First thing, then," Tony hesitated. If he really went through with his plan, he would die from lutetium poisoning, but Afzal's reactors would fizzle out and if he didn't know to take the lutetium out when that happened, it would explode. An explosion so big that it would take out a square mile. He continued in a steady voice, "I will need lutetium."

He went on to list the other materials he needed, but he still couldn't get the fact that he wouldn't be able to say good-bye to Pepper off of his mind.

* * *

Thor, who rarely got nervous, turned out to be a pig when he was. He had already gone through two boxes of Pop Tarts and was working on his third when Bruce found him. It was understandable, the reason he was so nervous. Loki, the god of thunder's brother, was due to arrive at the Avenger's Tower any minute, since thirty minutes ago.

Opening his mouth and then shutting it when he realized he had nothing to say, Banner sat down beside the anxious demi-god, sipping his coffee while thinking back to when they got back from scavenging the razed building, then getting back three days later and discovering that they had to babysit the same person who had tried to wipe out human existence just three months ago. Most were angry and shocked, but Thor was torn between elated and worried. He loved his little brother more than anything, but the demi-god couldn't ignore all the damage Loki had caused.

Clearing his throat, Bruce murmured, feeling the need to talk quietly when there was no need, "The, uh, SHIELD agents confirmed that the building where Stark was was completely empty when it collapsed. He wasn't there, but we still don't know where he is and now we have no leads. The two men don't know anything about a second base – Tasha gave them everything she had. We're going to have to start from scratch."

"But we will not be able to mount a search, friend – not one with a chance of finding him," Thor snapped at him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce frowned in confusion, "What do you mean? We have a plethora of SHIELD agents here with nothing to do."

Slamming his fists down, Thor glared at him, "And do you think that you mortals can find him? No, you'd need a god, but I cannot let Loki out of my sight when he arrives."

"Which was thirty seconds ago," Clint stuck his head out of the vent just as Natasha ran in through the door. "Ha! Told you this was faster," he chortled in triumph, obviously winning some sort of bet between them."

Moving quicker than lightning, she had jumped on the table and slammed the vent gate shut. When it hit Clint in the face, he reeled back and fell down another vent line, vanishing from sight. Natasha turned back to Thor and Bruce, who were both staring at her with wide eyes, "Director wants us up there yesterday. Let's go."

"What about the Eye of Hawk?" Standing up and placing his Pop Tarts on the table, the god of thunder peered down the vent to see if he could see Clint, but to no avail.

Natasha shrugged, "He got what was coming. And if we don't hurry, he'll make it to the top before us again. Let's go."

Calmly sipping his coffee, the scientist followed them quietly. One of his "hobbies", if you could call it that, was people-watching. Especially unusual people like his two teammates in front of him. Finding Natasha and Clint's behavior to be slightly unusual at a stressful time like this, he contemplated the idea that that was their way of coping with all that was happening. What with Tony being kidnapped, the building he was supposedly being held in crumbling to the ground in a torrent of flames before their eyes, and now the god who tried to kill them all (not to mention the whole world) was going to be staying – living – with them for an unknown amount of time. It was certainly cause for coping methods, which was why Banner had made sure his safe room was prepped and ready to be used at any time. Just in case the Hulk couldn't handle it and felt the need to smash something.

The helicopter must have just landed, because when the four opened the door that lead to the roof, Thor had to use his incredible strength to stop the door from slamming them in the face. But the wind ceased and Natasha smirked slightly when she saw Clint crawling out from behind the vent that protruded from the ground a few feet – his hiding place from the impressive wind speed. And it wasn't from a helicopter.

When the windstorm, or whatever it was, calmed down, Loki was standing in the middle of the roof, hands tied behind his back and a glare on his face. Before any of them could do anything, he spat out, "I hate all of you, disgusting Midgardians. Lay a hand on me and it'll be the last thing your hand does."

Clint, being the dick he is, clapped him on the shoulder, hard, and laughed loudly, "Sure it will. By the message that we got from your father—"

"He is not my father!" He snarled, causing Thor to wince.

"—he told us that he cast a spell on you that locked up your powers and only your brother could break it, and only with help from _your_ father." The archer made sure to stress the word 'your', just to spite him out of justifiable anger.

Bruce murmured to himself and Clint began moving Loki – none too gently – toward the door, "This isn't going to go over well."

Deep in his mind, the Hulk growled.

* * *

**I'm so sorry this took so long! I lost some inspiration and I couldn't find it (which is why this chapter is so short and crappy)**

**So pay attention, my pretties! If you have any suggestions as to where the story should go, please tell me! I'm here to please the people, which are you, lovelies. Thanks a billion!**

**~Dogtooth**


	5. Chapter 5

**READ THE BOTTEM!**

* * *

Steve Rogers carefully went over the footage again, determined to stay awake this time. Something about how Tony was kidnapped didn't sit right with him and he was sure there was something that they – the team and SHIELD – had missed. So he had set himself the task of going over the security tapes from the day that Tony was taken to see if there was something, anything that could show them where they had taken him now. But even while being a super soldier, he still needed sleep, something he hadn't had in the last few days. And watching Tony fiddle with some contraption for hours wasn't helping him stay awake. He'd fallen asleep almost every time only an hour or so in and he was starting to be pissed off at himself for being too weak to stay awake for his friend.

Sighing, he finally submitted to what he knew his body needed: coffee. Steve never really drank much of it, but if he didn't get something in his system to wake him up, he'd keel over and pass out, that he knew for sure. Making his way to the elevator, he pushed in a couple of buttons and leaned against the wall as it took him down to the kitchen. Then, he truly realized how badly he needed it; he almost fell asleep in the elevator, his cheek pressed against the wall. The 'ding' jolted him to alertness and he was glad that no one else had seen his small moment of undignified humanness.

However, when the doors opened, his friend Dr. Banner was standing there, seemingly in wait for him, with two coffee cups. "Need an extra set of eyes, Cap?"

The super soldier sighed in relief, "Couldn't hurt. Thanks, Doc."

They made their way back upstairs and set down at the desk with a computer monitor, which was paused at the place that Steve had kept falling asleep at. Just as Steve was getting ready for more grueling hours, Bruce took the remote, and simply fast-forwarded it.

Nearly having a heart attack, Steve tried to grab the remote from him, "What are you doing and how are you doing that?!"

All Bruce had to do was hold the remote to the side, away from the frantic man, and raised an eyebrow, "Fast-forwarding? And do you really think that if something major happened to Tony Stark, that we would miss it because the video was going faster? No, we'd be able to see it easily. Remember, it's Tony Stark."

As what Banner said began to dawn on him, he stopped trying to gain back the remote and just stared at him, "So, I spent all this time . . . staring at Tony doing such boring things . . . when I could have just done this."

"Essentially, yes," Banner shrugged.

With a thump, Steve's head smacked on the desk, "Shoot me now."

Bruce's eyes intensified and he hurriedly paused the tape, "Which one?"

"What?" As he lifted his head up, his stomach dropped to the floor. On the screen Tony was in the living room, facing Steve Rogers. "What!" He repeated, but more out of shock than as a question. "T-That's not me – I was in the gym then," looking at the time, he realized that this was almost fifteen minutes before they were alerted that Tony had been kidnapped. Both men quieted to listen to tape.

Tony entered from the top of the screen; his face and his expressions were clearly evident. _"What? Unless you didn't notice, I'm very busy at the moment."_ The look he gave it impostor was sour and unhappy, but unsuspecting. He really thought it was Steve.

_"Mister Stark,"_ the fake Steve said coldly, sounding nothing like the real Steve, _"it has come to SHIELD's attention that you have become incompetent and we are asking you to leave the Avengers."_

Not showing the surprise the two men watching the video were expecting, instead he held up his finger and stuck is pinkie in his ear as if to clean it out, _"I'm sorry, what? I don't think I heard you right. Are you_ firing _me?"_

When fake Steve didn't say anything, Tony's expression grew less annoyed and more worried and confused. After a long, torturous silence, Tony spoke again, _"Look, if this is revenge for showing you that video on YouTube, I'm sorry, okay?"_ At this point, the real Steve's face turned red, but he kept his face neutral. Stark continued, _"Just lighten up, man. Geez."_ He made a move to pat the fake Steve on the shoulder, but the fraudulent man, moving extremely fast, grabbed the genius's arm and held it in a grip designed to break someone's arm is enough force was applied.

Fake Steve snarled into a startled Tony's eyes, _"Don't_ ever _touch me, you vile piece of scum, or, so help me God, I'll rip your arm from your shoulder."_ Slowly, Tony began to realize just what kind of grip fake Steve had him in; his face turned ashen. _"Now go get your important stuff and get lost, Stark."_ Fake Steve shoved Tony back before slipping into the shadows. From their view from the video, they could see with horror that a window miraculously opened and the impostor jumped from it, and it closed behind him quickly and silently enough the Tony, when he regained his equilibrium, missed it completely. The only thing capable of doing that was JARVIS.

The genius, standing alone in the middle of the room, seemed to stare at nothing while he struggled to understand what had just happened. He managed to make his way to the door that led to his lab when two – no, three men – seemed to appear out of nowhere and bash Tony on the head. They kicked him again and dragged him out of the room, where they lost sight of them.

* * *

Having no family she could remember, Natasha was at a loss as to how to deal with Thor. Loki had a room for himself and while he changed into something other than his Asgardian convict uniform, the demi-god paced outside his door, trying to think of something to say to him. She understood that he wanted the relationship he had with him before, and she was trying to find a way to tell him that considering how much Loki's thinking had been twisted, she didn't think that was possible. Loki hated them, hated everything to do with them. Finding a way to get him to see for himself, she spoke up, "Thor? Answer a question for me, will you?"

He paused in his erratic pacing before sighing and turning to her, "What is it that you wish to know, Widow of Black?"

Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "What was it that made Loki turn so . . . evil?" She really didn't want to use that word around the sensitive man. "From what I understand, he used to be good. A loyal Asgardian."

Pain flashed in Thor's blue eyes, "Yes, that is true. He used to be my loyal comrade, willing to charge into battle with me and fight valiantly. He had my back and I had his. But at one such battle, he discovered who his parents' identity was. His father was a Frost Giant, enemies of Asgard. He felt . . . betrayed, because my father kept his heritage secret from him. It was for his own good, however. My father did the best he could to raise Loki like his own and love him like his own - and he still does.

"But Loki grew bitter, believing that he had to exact revenge against Asgard for lying to him. When I destroyed the Bifrost, he fell in the abyss, to where I know not. I believe, however, that he encountered strange new worlds, the likes of which we have never seen before nor have imagined. You know what happened after that, Widow of Black."

Natasha fell silent, remember how corrupted Barton had become and how long she had had to nurse him back to his mental health. "So, he won't give up until he makes Asgard pay."

"And me." Thor hesitated, this part especially painful for him, "I was the rightful heir of Asgard. When I was sent to Earth, Loki took advantage of Odin's Odinsleep and became Asgard's brief ruler, until I came back. I tore him down and away from the throne and did not save him when he fell. I destroyed the Bifrost, Loki's only chance of returning to Asgard under free will. It was my fault that what happened happened and Loki will be sure to cast his revenge on me as well. He is so full of hatred and bitterness that I fear it will be impossible to do so."

Not saying a word, Natasha nodded, sympathizing for the demi-god and his rocky (to say the least) relationship with his brother.

On the other side of the door, Loki was listening with a fleeting look of confusion. Everything his brother said was true - everything. But did he _really_ sound that sorrowful and full of pain, or was the door muffling Thor's hate and contempt? Either way, it didn't matter. Loki knew he would be dead soon anyway - the Chitauri had promised to find him if he didn't deliver the Tesseract to them, which he was unable to do.

The small part of him that had been who Loki was before was smothered again by the indescribable rage that poisoned his heart and mind and the vengeance-seeking god was back in full force, making sure that the pathetic sliver of him that still yearned for his old life was completely and totally locked away in the dark recesses of his mind. But he couldn't get rid of it completely; he'd tried and failed miserably every time. There were too many good and precious memories he couldn't seem to let go.

But that was only a mere fraction of his mind. A fraction that he could contain and, when the time came that the memories faded enough, destroy it completely.

Not paying attention to what was going on outside his door, he didn't hear the commotion outside it, and was therefore, startled when someone loud and rough began banging on his door. "Brother, you mush quicken your pace! The Widow of Black and I are needed urgently and we cannot leave you unattended."

Loki glared daggers through the door where he estimated Thor to be. Nothing irritated him more than being told what to do. But since he had to live with these fools for an indeterminate amount of time, he supposed he needed to play along and just go with it. He'd come up with a plan later. Opening the door, he strode forward with an arrogantly large amount of pride in his step, even if he had to wear the hideous and uncomfortable Midgardian clothes. The rough blue pants (AN: jeans, I didn't really know how else Loki would explain them) were especially heinous.

"Hurry, brother. It is most urgent," Thor urged him. The god of mischief glanced to his side at Natasha, who stared at him with disgust. He sneered at her, sort of reveling in the way she shied away from him. The old part of him craved the feeling of someone who _didn't_ shiver out of revolt when they saw him. It was easily ignored.

A few flights of stairs later, they entered the room where Steve and Bruce were waiting for them in, a large monitor on a desk. Rogers recoiled when he saw Loki and threw Thor a disbelieving look.

"We could not leave him unattended and you said it was urgent," the demi-god explained.

Swallowing back his fury that arose upon sight of the criminal, Bruce said stiffly, "We found out what really happened to Tony."

Loki, who had been examining the walls, snapped his head around to face the remainder of the team, "Did something happen to Stark?"

For a split-second, Thor looked hopeful, "Are you expressing concern for our fellow comrade, brother?"

The god gave him a withering look, "I have no concern for Stark's well-being. I asked because he owes me a drink."

Shoulders sagging, Thor looked away toward Bruce who had started speaking, "Steve and I were going over the security tapes from the day that Tony was kidnapped and we came across something. Look." He replayed the scene that the two had seen earlier and when it ended, both Thor's and Natasha's faces were pale.

The Black Widow slammed her fist against the wall, furious. "While it's nice to know _how_ Tony got kidnapped, it doesn't tell us _where_. That's the big question."

Loki couldn't retain his bark of laughter quick enough and within milliseconds the assassin had one of her lethal hands around his throat and the other on her gun. He sneered at her, unimpressed at her nonverbal threats, "Do you not see it, spider? Is it not plainly obvious to you when it stands out to me?"

"What does?" She bit out, her pride taking the blow of asking a question of any kind (when its not interrogation involved, of course - that was one of her fortes).

With a smirk, he pointed a finger at the screen, "The eyes of that man are dark, while your fellow teammate has eyes like the sky. So, think, spider: how could a replica of this man appear and get everything right but the eyes? And why not go through the trouble of making his eyes the same color?"

The answer came to Bruce quicker, "Because that's a robot!"

"No, you blithering fool," Loki growled, eager to show off his superior brainpower (in his mind, at least). "Magic. Most spells that deal with shape change require that something remains the same, which is usually the eyes as they are - what do you call them? 'Windows into the soul'. Something must remain to help preserve your sense of self. And since Migardians are severly under-developed compared to Asgardians, it is not a human who has captured Stark."

With a shiver of cold dread that crawled up his spine, Steve licked his dry lips and asked, "So what then? You're not suggesting that an Asgardian had something to do with this?"

The shorter god scoffed at that, "And you believe that those foolish, rule-abiding oafs would do anything that might offend their precious prince? No, I know who is behind this."

"Who?" When Loki remained silent, his brother grabbed his shoulders out of either rage or desperation, "Who, brother? Tell us!"

Loki didn't even look at him, "There is no reason to. With any luck, Stark is already dead."

"For your sake, I hope not."

They became silent as Nick Fury walked - more like stalked - into the room. The rest of the Avengers looked anywhere but their boss while Loki eyed him warily. He certinaly wouldn't put it past the Director to blow his brains out with his gun. Staring straight ahead at the convicted god, Fury said to Natasha, "Agent Barton and the rest of the crew think they found something at the building. He wants your second opinion. Go."

Curbing her protest, she only nodded curtly and trotted out of the door. He again spoke to someone he wasn't looking at, "Rogers, Banner, go get yourselves a cup of coffee - on me." When they were about to argue, he interrupted, "Starbucks coffee."

After some hesitation, they both, too, left, leaving only the Director and the god in the room. Arranging some chairs around, Fury motioned to Loki, gesturing for him to sit down. Smoothly doing so, there was a beat of quiet before Nick broke it.

"Who did it, Loki?"

He said nothing.

The Director sighed through his nose and placed his elbows on the table, "I'm willing to offer a deal."

Not expecting that, the god raised an eyebrow, "Are you that desperate that you need to bribe me to find your comrade?"

"I believe you've already asked this question," Fury growled, unamused.

Loki leaned back in his chair, "And what would this deal entitle?"

"What you want-"

"My magic," he replied without a lick of hesitation.

"-that is within my power. _That_ is not."

Loki curled his lip in contempt, "Then a favor. I shall be able to use this favor when I chose. That _is_ within your power, Director. Do we have a deal?" He stuck out his hand toward Fury, waiting.

Muttering curses under his breath and knowing that he would regret it later, the Director shook hands with the god of mischief, sealing the deal.

"Now tell me."

* * *

Tony had been working all day. The first thing on his agenda was to make an arc reactor for himself first, which required the help of Afzal to do so as he was too weak to handle all of the delicate bits himself. They had been working for twelve hours and in that time, Tony could have finished it, but Afzal wanted to know every little detail about it and how they all worked together, so not even half of it was done. Desperately needing a break, Tony declared their work done for the day and went to rest his weakening body. The car battery wasn't up to par with the arc reactor and it took a lot less effort for Tony's body to tire.

Locking the door behind him, Afzal strode down the hall, his smile fading quickly.

His plan seemed to either not be working or was working too well.

To him, he could give a rat's ass about arc reactors. They were meaningless to him, just a way to keep the brilliant mind that was Tony Stark working on something other than escape. Afzal was positive that he hadn't thought about making a radio to contact his friends and he wanted to make sure that his body was too weak to do so. No, his real plan involved luring one person to his location.

Loki.

Afzal's face began to disintegrate until a gray, ugly one replaced it. The Chitauri leader's six-fingered hand curled into a fist and he bared his red stained teeth in a show of anger. The being that used to be the power hungry Afzal no longer prospered and his men were no more trouble. The Other's master would not be happy with him and his failure. One of his henchmen tried to approach him, but he slammed the door to his quarters before he had a chance to speak. The Other slumped in his chair, racking his brain for a way to lure his target to his location.

He knew that the Asgardian traitor had been placed in the Avengers possession, so his plan had been to get the Avengers to his location. They had two options then: leave Loki at their tower or bring him along. Either way, his sources would tell him which one they went with.

He preferred the option of leaving him at the tower - he could completely avoid the Avengers then - but his master was hungry for a chance to fight the Avengers himself. If they did bring Loki with them, then his master would fight them alone, leaving him with the duty of taking Loki. His master wouldn't want him to kill the god then; he wanted to drag that pleasure out himself.

But before any of that could happen, the Avengers had to know where their teammate was first. Way out in rural Virginia, USA, no one would think to look there and that had been his plan. But how to alert the Avengers to their location without making it overtly obvious?

Alert the local police? No, because then this world's law enforcement would then become aware and his master wanted this only between him and the Avengers. The police would want to get the whole planet involved in an alien attack and his master didn't want that kind of publicity yet

Tell them directly? No, they wanted to remain covert for now. His master had nearly salivated at the thought of attacking the Avengers by surprise and seeing the looks on their faces. The Other and his troops were forbidden to allow anyone to see their true identity.

In the Other's room, the security screens were set up. As he stared at them, as he saw the other prisoners that occupied their many other cells, an idea struck his mind. As his master did not wished to be disturbed at the moment, only when he Avengers were advancing, it was his job to lure them here. He flung his doors open and barked orders at his men in his native tongue. While they hastened to obey, the Other smiled an evil smile.

Another few minutes went by before his soldiers dragged in one beaten, battered, and broken Tanner Brown. Tanner had been the owner of this place before the Other and his troops took over. As his henchmen threw the poor man on the ground at the Chitauri leader's feet, he knelt down, got his face very close to his, stared into his terrified eyes, and snarled, "Use this one."

Kicking and screaming, one of the Other's trusted soldiers dragged Mr. Brown off. He soon stopped screaming.

When the door opened again, that same soldier who had murdered him reentered, his body mutated to look just like the man, dirty rags and all. The Other ordered, "Approach the Avengers," he spat the name out like it was dirt, "and tell them where we are." With a nod, the soldier left, leaving a satisfied leader sitting in his room, waiting for the Avengers to strike and relishing the chance to see his leader put an end to their reign.

* * *

**There are no excuses. This, I admit. I _could_ say I was extremely busy with volleyball. I _could_ say I was working on helping my mom open a restaurant. I _could_ say I was working on my own book. I _could_ say that I had to do research on this first to make sure I got some parts of it right, but I'm not :) Instead, I'm going to refer you to what I wrote down below.**

**I'm going to say this here: I don't know if all of the information above is correct. It could be, it could not be: I don't know. Please, if you see a mistake AND CAN BACK IT UP WITH PROOF! then please let me know. I can't stand it when I get something wrong in a story.**

**~Dogtooth**

**Also, the above mentioned the Other's master (I'm supposing you all know who it is): I have no idea what he does or what his personality is like. I will be doing research on it, but if you have a site or just your information about him, then please tell me. I won't turn my nose up at anything! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**This is for reviewer**_**Margaret**_**, who reviewed the day I posted the fifth chapter and did not log in or doesn't have an account: If you look back to when I wrote the first chapter, where it has Tony interacting with the Fake Steve, you notice that before that Tony didn't really care what Fake Steve had to say; he just wanted to get back to his work. Also I said "dark eyes". That does not mean not blue eyes. They could just be a darker blue – I left it up to your imagination. Fake Steve had also dimmed the lights in the room, making it more difficult to see the color of someone's eyes. And then Fake Steve stunned Tony by 'firing' him – would you really be thinking about eye color if that happened? Also, the only reason that Loki noticed was because he was looking for it (I mentioned that Loki was expecting the Chitauri to find and kill him). It is also why Loki reacted to the statement "We found out what really happened to Tony", which Bruce Banner said. I hope that explains it! Thank you for reviewing!**

**(Also, I'm not saying that Tony is stupid – but we can all agree that he can be unaware of anyone but himself.)**

**On with the story!**

* * *

It was all Tony could do to not go stir-crazy.

He would have loved to go work, but Afzal had told him that to disobey his orders would lead to a consequence that would make him appreciate waterboarding, so he stayed on the other side of the room, even though he ached to be doing _something_. The car battery attached to his chest hindered his movement, so that left his mind to work.

Even aware that he would die soon, his brain couldn't stop thinking of designs. One that he had to admit was absolutely genius. It was similar to his AI back home, JARVIS, but more . . . mobile. It was like taking the processor part and shoving it out in space on a satellite while the body would be able to communicate nearly instantaneously with it, so it would be like a really small JARVIS. Or whatever he wanted it to be. Something like that – with the intelligence of a sophisticated AI that could be as small as he wanted it to be – was one of several brilliant ideas that he had while doing absolutely _nothing_ in his little cave-cell. He was going to go mad.

It wasn't long until Afzal returned, only now his demeanor changed. No more was he smiling yet sinister, not witty and manipulative. Instead, he now reminded Tony of a soldier, one whose sole purpose in life was to please and serve his commander. His face was stoic and cold and this unexpected change worried Tony more than he would have liked to admit.

And that was _before_ Afzal's face began to change, mutating into some kind of evil and hideous being. When the change was complete, the thing before him was nothing close to a human. Keeping his shock hidden away, the genius merely raised an eyebrow, giving 'Afzal' his best "that all you got?" face.

The creature expressed something between a smile and a snarl, "You do not know who I am. This I understand; for if you did, you would stop making foolish faces at me. I am the Other."

Only about a million smart-ass remarks came to Tony, but he didn't say any of them. The best way to deal with a person like this - someone who believed the world revolved around them - was to completely ignore them and what they were saying. They _had_ to have someone listening to them talking.

Unfortunately for Tony, it was a good thought; he was just using this strategy on the wrong person. The Other could care less if Tony listened or not; his job was to deliver the message. If the receiver of the message decided not to listen, that was his fault. "My master wants me to inform you that you are being held captive by the Chitauri - and _I_ am the Chitauri leader, you swine."

"Yeah, that's impressive," Tony began sarcastically. "The great Chitauri leader, bowing before his master. I am completely and woefully intimidated - good job."

"My master also wishes me to inform you that you no longer need to continue working on the late Afzal's plan for the domination of this pathetic planet, for we have no use for several of your mockishly outdated devices. "

Stark frowned, "What happened to Afzal then?"

The Other had just opened the door when he turned around and grinned maliciously, "He is no longer a problem."

* * *

It didn't matter that Nick Fury had barged into the room without knocking - the Avengers weren't really talking anyway. Natasha and Clint had been quietly contemplating why Fury had lied to them – there was nothing at the demolition site. Steve and Bruce had been debating between themselves, trying to decide if they should give into Thor's pleads for Starbucks. Steve was playing it safe (no coffee) while Bruce wanted to see how the god of thunder would react to the high caffeine levels (lots of coffee!).

The Director burst into the room, slamming the doors open in a motion of rage, which silenced every person present. He tossed a file on the table and paced around the room, too agitated to sit down. Following, Loki entered in a less dramatic fashion, seeming to be uncharacteristically subdued. The others simply assumed that he had had his ass handed to him by Fury.

Steve was the only one brave enough to open the file, and his reaction only further worried the remaining Avengers. Glancing at the contents for only a brief moment was all it took to turn his face into a picture of despair and vehemence. He threw the folder down and, staring at the picture, curled his fingers around his shield. The rest of the team reacted nearly likewise.

It was a file on the Other and the Chitauri. They were smart and it didn't take long for them to realize who was behind Tony's kidnapped.

Loki, surprisingly, was the one who spoke up first. "The Other threatened me with death if I did not bring him the Tesseract, which I was obviously unable to do. I believe he took your comrade in order to get to me."

He had fully expected them to react angrily and it came as no surprise to him when Banner roared and lunched at him, already tinged green. It was his brother's response that shocked him. Thor, using mighty Mjolnir, easily pushed back the half-turned Hulk and, taking great care not to show an overt act of aggression, pushed him back to a corner, talking quietly and swiftly to him. While the others joined him in the demigod's endeavors to calm the doctor, Loki quietly observed.

As he had witnessed, the Hulk was not all anger and destruction. The god of mischief had seen the great beast fight alongside the Avengers when he attacked New York and then heard of him leaping into the sky to save Stark after he took out the Chitauri mothership. In a certain sense, he deemed it appropriate to see that his brother and the beast got along.

Neither of them fit in.

Thor was from a different dimension, with different customs and radically different beliefs. He didn't really belong on Midgard and he knew it. The only person who he cared for was Jane Foster, who eagerly absorbed what he had to say instead of question it.

The Hulk was, as his name suggested, a hulk of muscle and devastation packed into seven feet, one thousand forty pounds of pure Hulk. As a human, his impressive mind, second only to Tony Stark himself and only in certain subjects, distanced him from fellow humans. And his alter-ego certainly didn't mix in with anyone, as the Hulk had the brains of a small child, even if it possessed a cunning that helped him on the battlefield.

There were certain differences between the two, but at the moment, they could relate in a way that brought the Hulk back to his senses. As Bruce returned to his seat, he merely glanced around the room and said in an almost careless way, "Sorry."

"If they wanted you, why not go for you instead of Tony?" Natasha questioned.

"Because, spider, they are not as gifted as you and the hawk," Clint glared at him, "in the field of espionage and theft. They are warriors – the idea of sneaking around to get what they want is relatively new to them. I was also being held in Asgard and the Chitauri have no hope of penetrating its defenses. In addition, Tony destroyed their mothership – they have a grudge against him as well.

"They know that you will strive to find him and, somehow, through that, they hope to find and kill me. They must know that Odin sent me here."

"So, it's all your fault," Clint stated, not questioned.

"Have care how you speak," Thor intervened. "Loki did not call unto them, and personally bring them back. It was his past mistakes that led them here – mistakes which his is here to atone for. This circumstance provides the opportunity for my brother to recompense those transgressions. Let us help him and take out the Chitauri once and for all."

"Have care how you speak," Thor intervened. "Loki did not call unto them, and personally bring them back. It was his past mistakes that led them here – mistakes which his is here to atone for. This circumstance provides the opportunity for my brother to recompense those transgressions. Let us help him and take out the Chitauri once and for all."

"Thought we already did," Clint muttered.

Steve, as much as he hated to admit it, know and saw the truth that Thor spoke about. They needed all the help they could get against the Chitauri and Loki knew more about them than any of the Avengers or SHIELD did.

"We just need information, Loki. Their weak points, how they communicate - anything we don't already know. Got it?"

The god simply nodded. Loki didn't trust them and while the feeling was mutual, he knew it was in his best interest to go along with them. He was without his magic and while that didn't mean he was helpless, it did mean that he wasn't at his peak and because of that, he needed temporary help to take out one of his major threats.

And, if he was completely honest with himself, he missed his brother.

* * *

Contrary to what most would expect from him, Tony Stark was actually glad. Ish.

Firstly, now that he didn't need to build arc reactors for the late Afzal anymore, he no longer needed his sacrificial plan. That was certainly cause for celebration. Also, the fact that they had called his technology "mockishly outdated" – while it dealt a crushing blow to his ego and pride – told him that they would have no use for his arc reactor, so it might still have been un-destroyed. He had no idea how long Afzal had been dead, so he had no way of knowing if his arc reactor was whole or not.

But there was also a downside; the Chitauri _hated_ him. He supposed it was for blowing up their ship – which brought up the question of how these Chitauri had survived. While under Afzal's 'care', he was mostly ignored by his henchmen, which was a blessing when being held captive. With the Chitauri, he was constantly being beat up and pushed around. So far, he had only suffered a bloody nose, a black eye, and a multitude of bruises. He considered himself lucky.

But he was alive and had no planned timeline like before, so he was happy.

However, he still didn't know why the Chitauri needed him in the first place, other than revenge. Tony had already ruled that out, because if they wanted revenge, they would have tortured and killed him already, not keep him locked up.

He had been moved from his little cave to an area that was surrounded by prison bars. It served two purposes: to keep a better eye on him and to show off the fact that they had the great Tony Stark in captivity. While it was degrading – to be treated like an animal by creatures that looked more slug than human – it did give Tony the perfect chance to watch them, to study them. He could figure out how they worked, what their weaknesses were, what their goal was, etc. However, he had no luck on that front; they were a species who could carefully control their expressions and what they said, despite how animalistic and primordial they looked.

Finally, his chance came when he saw the Chitauri leader – the Other – walking toward him. At first, all it did was stare at him – that's what he assumed, however. The hood covered a lot of his face. Then, it spoke.

"Human," he growled. Tony didn't respond and he continued, "Look at you, once great and mighty, now pathetic. Helpless. Nothing without your armor. You couldn't even take on a grotshpal, you're that weak."

"At least I'm man enough to fight someone face-to-face, not wait until someone kidnaps him and then take him down," Tony snapped.

The skin around his mouth tightened and he gave the appearance of being displeased. "It was luck that you were too pathetic and were already taken by someone; it made it very convenient for us."

"Us? So, you and your master, then? I'm still having trouble believing that you have to grovel beneath someone else in order to do _anything_. And you call me pathetic?" Then - because he's Tony Stark and he just couldn't help himself - he continued in a creepy voice, "Take me to your leader." Then - in a normal voice, "Because I'm not going to deal with some low messenger."

Faster than he could blink, the Other had seized his neck through the bars and dragged him forward until his face was painfully pressed against them. "You fool, I'll kill you."

Obviously not believing him, Tony scoffed, "Yeah, go ahead, slug face - make a move."

Tony didn't expect the other hand to whip out a blade and stab him through the abdomen. His brown eyes widened and as he coughed up blood, the Other leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "You fool, that's why I came down here in the first place. I was already planning on killing you."

Tony began choking on his own blood which was clogging his windpipe. The knife had managed to slice through the underside of his lung, too. The Other only smiled, "Finally, you die by my hands. We only needed you as bait for your teammates, who have our main target: Loki."

Tony's eyes widened as his vision faded and his breath grew fainter. "But since we did our job too well and they couldn't find you, we sent one of our own in the disguise of a prisoner to find them. Therefore, we no longer have any need of you."

His hands around his wound slipped away as his strength faded, but just to be sure, the Other stabbed him three more times. "I wish I could spend more time with you, Tony, but this will also be more than sufficient."

When Tony finally went limp in the Other's grip around his throat, he let go and reveled in the _thump_ as the man hit the floor and lie still. His soldiers, who were watching, cheered and shrieked as their revenge was complete with the demise of their hated enemy. The Other barked out orders, "We're going to need to get rid of the body - we don't want it stinking up the place. You two, dump it in the forest, away from here."

The two creatures obeyed and they grabbed the man's arms and legs, dragging him outside and throwing him in the back of their transportation devices. They flew until they were far enough away where their base couldn't be seen before shoving him out and flying away.

However, just as they were about to leave, one of them turned and told the other one something which he responded to with a wicked grin. They turned around and picked up Tony again; this time, they drove toward the city of Richmond. Laughing cruelly, they again pushed his battered body out and onto the pavement, where people began screaming. A few called for help, a move which amused the Chitauri as they left, leaving a bloody and bruised body lying on the pavement.

* * *

**I know this isn't as long as my chapters normally are, but since I'm going by my plot triangle (finally got off of my lazy ass and wrote one) this is all that is needed in this chapter. So, now I know what's going to be in each chapter ^^ I'll try to keep up a pace like this for my chapters, but I'm also writing an actual book that I plan on publishing. So that does take priority ****. Well, I hope you like this chapter. Thanks you for reading ^^**

**~Dogtooth**


	7. Chapter 7

Even though there were so many humans, there were plenty of back ways and alleyways that were nearly completely empty. The Chitauri soldier had hopped train after train, making it all the way from Virginia to New York City. Finally, he was here, just blocks from the Avengers, one of the Chitauri's most hated enemies. Not many other species knew that they even existed. The ones that did weren't around anymore. He curled his lip up, which felt odd considering that he now took the form of a human. However much he wanted to revert back to his normal self, he needed this appearance in order to deceive the Avengers. His leader, the Other, entrusted him with this mission and he would not fail him, even if he answered to someone more powerful than he.

His plan for infiltration was simple: walk in and play the part of Tanner Brown – escaped prisoner – to a 'T'. Say he was the held prisoner by the Chitauri because they wanted his building. He managed to escape, but not after he managed to catch a glimpse of the famous Tony Stark. He traveled to the Stark/Avengers Tower in New York City to inform them of this. Perfect.

The Chitauri soldier moved until he could see the tower, standing proudly up in the air. With a smirk, he could still see where some of the damage hadn't been repaired just yet. He moved a little closer and saw the front door surrounded by SHIELD agents. Not seeming to be guarding the place, just hanging around and talking, the soldier figured the best way to talk to the Avengers was to talk to the SHIELD agents first, get them to take him to them. No one would suspect him and his prisoner story.

At the last minute, he decided to give himself a little limp, to add to the sympathy and draw attention away from him. Since he was a Chitauri warrior, he could take anything. Drawing out the small knife that he had stored in his boot, he cut his leg, making sure it wasn't too bad, then grabbed some dirt and smeared it in the wound to make it appear older looking and not as fresh. Acting for all he was worth – because if he didn't convince them, his leader would kill him – he scrambled out from the alley he had been hiding in and cried out, "Help me! Please, help me!"

As predicted, the SHIELD agents whirled around, hands on guns, and spotted him. The people in the street either moved around him like a river parting around a rock, or screamed. A few ran away – those really amused him. But he kept up the act and staggered forward before falling down. As the agents ran forward to help him, he briefly thought about how easy it would be to take his knife and shove it down their throats. It would only take a second – no. He swallowed down his bloodlust. He had a job to do and damn it, he was going to do it right. When the agents made it to his side – they were hindered by the absolute _hordes_ of people in their way, he gasped out, "I-I know w-where Tony Stark is – I-I saw him!" Then, using pure mind-power, he made himself pass out.

He supposed it wasn't long until he woke up, because people were bustling about rapidly and a human was standing over him in a white coat. The man was about to say something when another human - a woman wearing a uniform that he identified with SHIELD barged in, took the man to a corner of the room and they conversed rapidly, quietly. Then the man and the others left, leaving him alone with the woman.

She stared at him, not revealing anything with her blue eyes. Not exactly sure how to respond to a female, the soldier in disguise looked anywhere but her. So he missed Agent Hill's eyes narrow in suspicion. Without a word, the agent stalked silently out of the room, leaving the injured soldier on the hospital bed. He only had to wait a few moments, because soon, the majority of the Avengers walked in.

Captain America spoke up first, "What's your name?"

"Tanner Brown, sir. I was the owner of an underground area when t-these c-creatures came and t-took the place over. I was held captive for - I don't even know how long - but I-I saw Iron Man. Tony Stark - h-he was there!" The Chitauri soldier began to shake, as if what Tanner Brown had been through was too much for him. But the way the god, Thor, and the archer, Hawkeye, stared at him made him nervous. He had acted to the best of his ability and he knew he was convincing, so why were they looking at him like that.

"Do you remember where you were, Mr. Brown?" The Black Widow asked him, feigning concern. Not that he could tell - he was just a soldier in the Chitauri ranks.

"Yes. We were still at my underground property. I can show you where it is."

The Hulk's alter ego, Bruce Banner, raised an eyebrow at him, "Sir, you are injured. You're in no condition to go anywhere. Just give us the location."

The warrior swallowed. He had been planning on accompanying them back to the compound, to see his leader and his master utterly pulverize the Avengers into the ground and wipe their smudges on rocks. It was a fitting end to the group that had taken the Tesseract away from them. But if not, then that was also fine. He had no doubt as to his leaders prowess and if he was more useful at the Tower, then he wouldn't complain or argue. But as he nodded, an idea came to mind.

The Tesseract.

If it was somewhere in the Avenger's Tower, and they left to attempt to rescue their friend, then he could look around for it when they left. It was very hard for him to keep the grin off of his face.

"Where were you being held, sir?"

After he gave them the coordinates, they left him alone on a hospital bed. Waiting a few minutes, the soldier slid out of the bed and crept toward the door. He was in no way a spy nor trained in any kind of stealth, but he was sure he could outwit the humans enough to retrieve the Tesseract. As he made his way toward the door, it slammed shut on its own and steel shutters closed down the windows.

A robotic voice sounded but he couldn't tell where it came from, "I believe you are an imposter, sir. Am I correct with this assumption?"

"N-No! I'm Tanner Brown - "

"My instruments tell me that Tanner Brown has been dead for over a week. My bio-scan is nearly complete, but if you were to tell me who you really are, it could save you the agony that my final extraction details."

When he didn't say a word, a robotic arm lashed out from the wall and injected him with something. To his absolute horror, he felt his form beginning to melt off of him, revealing his true body. Knowing he couldn't do anything about it, he simply let it happen and when all the pieces of Tanner Brown were gone, he laughed. "This does not impede our plans. The location I gave you was true - I was not lying. Your comrade Tony Stark is there. However, I would hurry if I were you. My leader hates him with a burning passion and might not be able to hold himself back from killing him long enough for you to be able to rescue him."

There was a long pause before the voice spoke again, "I shall return soon and when I receive the information I require, I will kill you."

* * *

"JARVIS. JARVIS? JARVIS!"

There was a long pause, "Here, sir."

Steve scowled, "Where were you?"

Another pause, "Sorry, sir. What is it that you need?"

Trying not to mutter in annoyance, the super-soldier said, "I need you to look up the coordinates that Brown - "

"Sir, I have received word that Mr. Brown has revealed himself to be a Chitauri. However, I detected no lies when he gave us the coordinates. Would you like me to check that, sir?"

"Wha - yes, do that. Now."

While JARVIS was looking that up, the rest of the Avengers were in the conference room. Some - Bruce, Natasha, and Loki - were sitting down while others - Thor, Steve, and Director Fury - were standing and pacing. Clint was on the ceiling, hanging onto a light fixture. All of them froze in place - Clint nearly fell - when they heard that Tanner Brown was a Chitauri. They wanted to ask JARVIS how he knew, but remembering what he did to Afzal's men, they remained silent and trusted his - or is it 'its'? - judgment.

"Alright," Natasha placed her elbows on the table and seemed to be in deep thought. "Let's think this through."

Clint interrupted, "Why?"

"Because we're a team, idiot," she scowled up at him from his place on the ceiling. "And that's what teams do. I think. Alright, the Chitauri have Tony, so we have two viable theories about Afzal: One, he never existed and it was just the Chitauri all along or two, there really was an Afzal who wanted Tony, but the Chitauri took him from Afzal. Either way, he's out of the picture.

"So the next thing is how to get Tony back."

"Sir," JARVIS chimed in, "the coordinates show part of a forest that is owned by Tanner Brown, whom I know to be dead. Chitauri can be seen entering and exiting."

"What about Tony, can you detect him at all?" Bruce interrupted, stating what everyone was thinking.

Even though it was an AI, it sounded mournful, "No, he's undetectable."

* * *

One of the things that Tony prided himself on was being a lady's man. He could make a Victoria's Secret model swoon when he got near. So when he opened his bleary eyes and saw an attractive woman standing over him, _leaning_ over him with her shirt a little too open to be considered completely appropriate, he grinned and tried to win her over with his smooth words and charming personality.

Only, he couldn't talk. His lips weren't responding. This was strange, but a man like Tony Stark wasn't about to give up in the face of a beautiful woman. He tried to move his hand - which it did, albeit shakily - and touch her arm. He did, but his hand was bandaged and he couldn't even move his fingers. The lady, seeing that he was awake, only smiled at him and spoke loudly, very clearly, "Mister Stark, you're at a hospital. You were severely injured, but most of your injuries are healing splendidly. Our hospital is currently attempting to reach Stark Industries. Please don't attempt to talk, the morphine will hinder your finer muscle movement, which includes your mouth. In a few minutes, you will be able talk, so save your questions for then." After a final glance at his monitor, she left, presumably to return.

It took a few moments for his morphine-muddled mind to grasp what the nurse said, but when it did, the memories can rushing back. The Chitauri, the torture, the falling - twice. He remember it all and tried to piece together what that meant. He was in a normal hospital in an unknown city - the nurse hadn't thought to tell him that part - without his teammates or JARVIS. That was enough to put him on edge without the added stress of the Other lurking around somewhere with an army of Chitauri. For now, Tony merely focused on working his finer muscles back to life.

True to her word, the nurse returned with another woman, this one wearing the traditional white coat of a doctor. She smiled at him and stated, "Mr. Stark, I am Dr. Malcolm, the one who has been taking care of you and head doctor of this hospital. You were found a week ago, gravely injured. It appeared you had fallen from a building or something up high. You sustained lacerations and punctuations severe enough to be called stab wounds. However, you are making excellent progress recovering from these injuries. As Nurse Ashley explained briefly, we are attempting to contact Stark Industries, but they keep stiff-arming us, believing that we're lying or something of the sort. Within a few days, you'll be recovered enough to be transported to the hospital of your choice. Did I miss anything?"

"Just two," Tony shuffled a bit, uncomfortable at being so weak In front of these very attractive women. "What city am I in? And you forgot to give me your numbers." All that was needed was a saucy wink towards the nurse and she was a puddle of goo on the ground.

The doctor blushed, stammering, "Y-you're in Goochland, Virginia, Mr. Stark."

"Please. Call me Tony." Another wink and the nurse nearly passed out.

Dr. Malcolm shook off his charm and adopted her professionalism again, "Mr. Stark, if you would be so kind as to call your business and let them know we are not, in fact, joking when we say we saved your life. When you feel up to it, of course."

"Of course. How about now?"

Obviously still flustered by his earlier flirting, the doctor said, "Have at it. There's a phone on your bedside table." As soon as she left, Nurse Ashley did as well, but not without blowing a kiss toward the downed playboy.

It took him a few times to grasp the phone and punch in Pepper's number, but he could hardely contain his excitement. He really couldn't take care of himself without her, he realized.

* * *

**Yes, I'm alive.**

**I'm so sorry this took so long to get out here, but a little bit ago I was contacted by someone and they told me they liked my work and wanted me to write an RPG for them! So, yes, I neglected this piece in favor of getting paid five bucks per story and, yes, I am very sorry.**

**I admit that I will probably update this sparingly since I'm really busy now (I'm trying to get one of my books published, too). However, I will not abandon it, I promise. So, add this story to your Alerts so you can get it when I write another chapter :)**

**~Dogtooth**


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